5 Problems Faced by Caregivers of Elderly People

Caring for an elder is oftentimes perceived as a blessing in disguise. However, adhering persistently to fulfilling the needs of one’s aging parent can take its toll on a person. But if you know the problems, you can definitely find a solution. Here, I’ll point out the five most difficult problems faced by the caregivers.

1.     Privacy Breach:

Caregiving in family home can be a little difficult along with managing privacy. Everyone in a family needs their own freedom and space. In order to have physical privacy, one needs to have their own space where they can be by themselves. This gets a little hard with parents who have mental illnesses, since they can be forgetful and barge into any room without registering the situation. They can be overly demanding of attention and the primary caregiver might deprive their spouses or kids of their attention.

2.     Sleep Deprivation:

Caregivers can have a hard time dealing the issue of sleep deprivation. Chances are that your elderly might have some sleep disorders, and even if they do not they might require your assistance to go to the bathroom etc. Staying busy throughout the day can drain your energies more quickly and might even need more sleep. The sleep deprivation can greatly impact the health of caregiver which will ultimately affect the elderly as well.

3.     Do It All By Yourself:

The most common approach that deteriorates the routine of a caregiver, is taking all the responsibility on themselves and trying to do it all from their parent’s doctor visits to their meal preparation, they assume all the burden on themselves. Resultantly, they fail to live their own lives to the fullest and end up sacrificing their own hobbies and interests. Caregivers  should consider getting all the help they can get and should rely on their siblings and family for some of the responsibilities such as taking the elderly out for a walk.

4.     Special Circumstances:

Sometimes caregivers can have a hard time adjusting to the tasks result of incontinences, such as urine and fecal incontinences. Sometimes this can get so overwhelming that children end up putting their parents in nursing-homes. What can be done about this is, that you can get the elderly physically checked up regularly and anticipate such conditions so that they can fixed at the earliest stage if possible. Otherwise you would have to resort to get a nurse or contact a nursing home ultimately.

5.     Financial Issues:

If you’re taking care of your parents, chances are in order to manage the time you are cutting back on the work hours or doing a simple rescheduling which might affect your salary/wages.  Plus, there are a lot of miscellaneous expenditures and if you’re paying for your parents expenditures you might suffer from financial crises. Consider getting Carer’s allowance for this purpose. This will help you out with at least the small expenditures.

These are some problems you might encounter and you should be aware of them so that they can be handled effectively. Good luck!

Author Bio:   

This post is written by Chris Palmer who is a comedian and a public speaker. He has got a lot of valuable information about dementia and elderly care. He regularly blogs at agespace.org